School Bells Ring!

 School has started.  Everyone was excited to go.

 

Gotta love those uniforms.  They all look so cute!  Plus, we don't really have to decide what to wear each day.

 Keith had his secret identity with him.  I made him leave it in the van. . .

Alyssa was so excited to go to class.  No hesitation at all.  We are so glad to get the same teacher that Kirsten had.

Looks like Kirsten has lots of fun things to learn this year.  She was the only kid to come home with homework on the first day.  Usually others have it too. 

 Ethan and Rebecca probably could have walked themselves to class, (Rebecca wanted to), but I insisted on taking them.  I feel bad for the little kids who show up on the bus and don't know where to go.  Fortunately there are plenty of adults to help them get to their classrooms, but still. . .  We went to orientation and helped the kids find their classrooms before the first day, which was a big help for me and them.

Keith got in on the fun with a new backpack of his own, complete with a little lunch box (very convenient for the days when we are out and about).

Donuts and Wood Working

After not posting for a while, we thought we would finally share some of the fun and interesting things that have been going on here.  One of the kids wanted to go get donuts recently and Lena suggested that we make some instead.  For what we would have spent on a dozen donuts, we were able to make a few dozen and the kids enjoyed helping as well.  It was a fun family activity and breakfast.

We have been wanting to get some swings for the kids for a while, but finally Mike decided to build a frame for swings and add it to our existing wood playset that Mike made a number of years ago.  We got the basic plan for the swing frame from http://ana-white.com/2010/06/how-build-swing-set-playhouse.  

We made a few modifications, but it turned out fairly good.  We still need to add a few more swings to it, but the kids are already really enjoying it.  Comparing it to other wood swing sets at Home Depot, this thing is a lot more sturdy than those.  It should last a really long time.

There was a kit at Home Depot with some of these same swings and hardware, but Mike decided to pick and choose the pieces that he wanted.  The funny thing was that the kit claimed it could be assembled in one hour.  It took Mike nearly 2 hours just to hang the swings, so no idea how the whole kit could be done in one hour.

For Lena's birthday recently, Mike got her a compound miter saw and a drill.  Now, I am sure you are thinking that is a joke, but Lena really asked for those for her birthday.  Part of the deal is that Mike has to help her feel comfortable with using the saw.  Lena looks at and follows the ana-white.com website fairly frequently and has a wide number of things that are so much easier with these tools.  The extra drill is especially helpful with the kreg jig pocket hole screws because one drill can be used to drill the pocket holes and the other can be used to drive the screws and we don't have to change bits back and forth. Here is Lena with her new birhday presents.  Mike built the cart for the miter saw from this plan on the ana-white website: http://ana-white.com/2012/04/plans/miter-saw-cart.  We made some modifications to the plans because we wanted to build it completely with leftover wood that we already had from a number of other projects.

Marriage between a man and woman is ordained of God

"Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.

The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. 

We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. 

We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife".

The Family, A Proclamation to the World

Corn on the Cob

 We have picked corn  twice now from our garden.  We love fresh corn on the cob!  

Lena and the kids picked the corn,

 

and Mike and the kids shucked the corn.

 

Then we washed and cooked the corn

 

 so everyone could eat the corn.

The little red hen may have eaten hers all alone, but Lena was glad she didn't have too.  It would have been too much for Lena to eat all on her own anyway. Thanks guys for helping!

Happy 4th

We hope this Independence Day finds all of you happy and well.  We started the day off right by making muffins and mowing the lawn.  Then we headed over to the church for a flag raising ceremony presented by the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts of America and pledge of Allegiance.  We ate a delicious potluck breakfast and headed home.  Before some of us changed we got some family photos.  Not everyone wanted to cooperate at the same time.

 

Our family

 

 Our handsome scouts

 My scout-to-be.  Much happier on his own.

 Pretty girls

 Mike and Lena

 Cub Scouts can fly?

The girls are rockin'!

The picnic pork roast is in the slow cooker, the corn is shucked and in the fridge, the watermelon and rootbeer are both busy chillin'.  We have some fireworks to get.  More of the lawn is mowed, but it's so HOT outside.  We'll take care of the rest later.  Maybe we'll head to the pool to chill (if that's possible in lukewarm water).  If we feel like it, we'll head downtown this evening to watch the fireworks.

Happy 4th everyone!